Conversations in Neverland
by Fractaledsymmetry
Summary: Neverland is dying and someone needs to save it.
1. Chapter 1

Note: So, this is my sequel to _Peter Pan_ and takes place many generations after Wendy. Um... hopefully some of my later chapters will end up longer and more exciting than this one, but every story needs a starting point, so here's mine. Enjoy!

_Peter Pan _belongs to the Great Ormand Street Hospital for Sick Children.

Conversations in Neverland

Chapter 1

Tanya sailed in the window, an expert at flying after only a few weeks in Neverland. Her mother was asleep in a chair by Tanya's bed. The woman had given Tanya her consent to fly away with Peter, but she still worried the lure of Neverland would be too strong and her daughter would never return. Tanya had promised to return, but her mother still waited the moment she would be back in the nursery.

Peter stood on the windowsill behind Tanya. He had known Tanya wouldn't stay with him forever, but he still felt out of place watching her return to the mainland. He didn't belong.

Tanya paused for a minute in front of him, then ran to her mother. "Mother." She cried, shaking her shoulder.

Tanya's mother blinked at the apparition before her and cried out with joy. She jumped from the chair and embraced her daughter. Over Tanya's curls, her mother glimpsed the boy who never grew up. "Thank you," she mouthed at him and kissed those curls beneath her.

"Thank you mother, for letting me go." Tanya said.

Her mother smiled, knowing she wouldn't have been able to deny her daughter the same pleasure she had had as a child.

Tanya turned to the window. "Will you come back next spring?" she asked the boy.

"If you like" He answered

"You promise you won't forget?"

"Of course not!" Peter crowed.

"I'll see you next year then?"

Peter, never good at goodbyes, just flashed his teeth at her and flew away. Tanya watched him go and somehow knew she would never fly to Neverland again.


	2. Chapter 2

Chapter 2

"Tanya?" Izzy recognized the soft voice though he had never heard it before. It was Peter. Izzy pretended he was still asleep.

"Tanya?" Peter padded across the floor, heading toward the bed. Some part of him wondered if it didn't use to be in a different spot.

"Peter?" Tanya's voice called from the door.

"Tanya. I've come to take you back with me. It's spring cleaning time."

"I can't go with you this time, Peter." Tanya said.

"Why not?"

The light clicked on and Izzy blinked under the blankets. Peter let out a horrified cry. "It's been many years since my last visit." Tanya answered him. She expected him to throw a fit as he had with her mother, but he didn't.

Peter looked at the floor as his shoulders shook, then he looked at the bed. "You have a daughter of your own." He didn't ask, but stated the fact as if he already knew.

Tanya sat in the rocking chair by the fireplace, somewhat disturbed he was taking the news so well. "A son." She corrected him.

"What?" Peter shrieked. Now that was more like him.

Izzy couldn't take it. He threw back the bedspread. "You got a problem with that?"

Peter turned to the boy and despised him in an instant. This boy had stolen his mother, and with his dark skin and hair, he didn't even look like her. "I came for my mother," Peter snapped, "It's spring cleaning time."

Izzy wanted to snap back that Peter seemed to have been doing fine for more than twelve years, but he also hoped to see Neverland himself, a feat he understood would be near impossible as he was not a girl. Izzy spoke as polite as he could. "What do you plan to do now?"

Peter stood tall, fists on his hips. "I shall have to return without her."

"Alone." Izzy repeated.

Peter laughed. "Of course alone. Who would I take with me? You?"

Izzy looked at the bedspread, recognizing Peter's scorn. He didn't respond.

"You couldn't be my mother." Peter scoffed.

Izzy spoke in a near whisper. "I could be your friend."

Peter laughed again. How could this boy who had stolen his mother ever be his friend? He looked down his nose at Izzy. "If you wanted to be a lost boy, you should have fallen out of your pram."

"But..." Izzy tried to plead his case as Peter launched himself out the window. "...I tell stories." It was too late. Peter was gone. Izzy looked at his mother and couldn't help noticing the look of relief on her face.

"I'm sorry Izzy," she said, but she couldn't help thinking of the heartache that had been avoided. Izzy looked back the window as his mother tucked him into bed. "Goodnight Izzy." She kissed him on the forehead left the room, turning out the light.

Of course, Tanya should not have been so confident that Izzy's departure was thwarted. Though he looked like his father, Izzy had his mother's determination. The instant the door clicked shut, Izzy ran to the spot in the room where Peter had been standing. He had seen fairy dust falling off the boy and hoped the dregs would be enough to make it to Neverland. Sure enough, a pile of golden dust lay on the floor.

Izzy picked up what he could of it and poured it over his head, thinking of his parents sitting in the front row at the school's spring pageant when he was a little boy. His feet came off the ground. Izzy gasped. This was it. He looked out the window. No one had ever traveled to Neverland without Peter's help before, at least as far as he knew. But Izzy felt within himself that he could find it. He gave a final glance at the door to the nursery and flew off into the night.


	3. Chapter 3

Note: So, the only notes I took on this chapter was that I wanted Izzy flying to Neverland, and it came out really short, and not much happens. But I have a good idea of what I want to happen in the next couple of chapters, so next week the story should be a little more substantial.

Chapter 3

Izzy followed a feeling. There was no map to Neverland, but some part of him already knew where he was going, like instructions had been included somewhere in all the stories his mother told him about her own adventures as well as those of his ancestors, all the way back to the Darling children. It was a good thing too, as it was a cloudy night.

When Izzy left, half of the moon was covered, as were most of the stars. The farther he flew, the blacker it got, meaning that even the few stars that called out to him couldn't tell him where to go. After some time, he couldn't see anything, so he closed his eyes and listened for the place. He already knew what it would sound like: the call of the Neverbird, sails flapping in the wind, the chimes on the mermaids' doors.

Izzy knew what it would look like too. He would fly up toward the lagoon. The water would be at high tide, the waves inching their way up the white beach and back down again. The Jolly Roger, would still be drifting in the same lazy way without an owner, and beyond its mast, the bright green leaves of the forest would creep into his vision.

But when the light hit his eyelids and Izzy looked at last, the light was not at all what he expected. Everything was gray, even the water, and half the trees were dead. The only color that didn't look washed out came from the two living things Izzy could see.


	4. Chapter 4

Note: If I had known how short this chapter would be, I would have combined it with the last one. I'm apparently having trouble with the long at the moment. But (hooray!) Jamie's entering in this chapter, and he should have some more to say in the next one.

Chapter 4

"I'm telling you Jamie." A girl's voice demanded. Izzy watched from above. Her hair was _bright green_.

"It was just a joke Rosie, I didn't mean anything by it." The boy shook his thick black curls and smirked at her.

Izzy winced as she slapped him. The boy's face turned just as red as his coat. "Aw, Rosie..." He pleaded, "I kept it safe for you."

"You kept it safe _from_ me," she spat. She raised her hand to slap him again, but lowered it. "Next time you decide to bury someone's treasure, bury your own." She seethed and stalked away, kicking up gray sand as she went.

The boy stuck his tongue out at her, then stood there with his hands on his hips. After a minute, he looked up, right at Izzy. "So you're the reason Peter didn't come back with another girl." He said.

Izzy eyed him. "I... didn't come with Peter..." He said at last.

The boy spread his arms out. "Well obviously, or you'd be with him. Are you going to come down or wait for the fairy dust to wear off?"

"I... um..." Izzy felt he didn't have a choice. He landed next to the boy.


	5. Chapter 5

Note: Okay, so Jamie's here, and I did not realize he had so much backstory (or rather, that his parents did.) So at last a substantial chapter, even if it's really a flashback.

Chapter 5

"Who are you?" Izzy asked as he landed.

"Ever hear of Captain Hook?"

Izzy nodded.

"I'm his son, Jamie." Jamie not only stated it as a simple fact, but dared to offer his hand to Izzy, who didn't take it, but stepped back. Jamie laughed. "Oh come now. Do you think I'm going to feed you poison cake?" He turned toward the Jolly Roger, anchored on the shore, and waved Izzy over. "Tell me about the mainland and just why Peter _didn't_ bring a girl back with him."

Izzy watched Jamie board the ship and raced after him. "Someone's been _living_ on the Jolly Roger all this time? Everyone thought it was just drifting."

Jamie laughed as he lead Izzy to the captain's quarters. "I've been living here ever since father died."

"You've been in Neverland all this time? And no one noticed? Were you here with the other pirates? How did you get away? Did that girl have anything to do with it?" Izzy bombarded Jamie with questions.

Jamie put his hand up. "As I recall, I've already asked you a coupled of questions. Answer those and I'll explain." He collapsed into the captain's chair and put his feet on the desk in front of him. He gestured to a second chair, "And please, have a seat."

Izzy stood in the doorway a second longer, then sat where Jamie indicated. He explained about being the first male descendant of Wendy Darling and how Peter had come for his mother, and the argument and how Izzy escaped.

A smile spread across Jamie's face. "Well you aren't the only one to find this place by yourself..." and without further ado, he launched into his explanation.

Jamie talked about a young man, a hundred years ago at least, named James. He was handsome and intelligent and refined. He was ambitions, wanted nothing more than to change the world, thought about becoming a politician, a career choice his parents, no doubt, would have approved of.

Their plans were shattered when he met a young actress named Mary. She turned him onto her favorite literature and convinced him that sometimes politics isn't the best way to change the world, that there were lots of ways to get people thinking, so he thought about becoming an artist instead, which angered his parents.

James and Mary didn't care. They eloped and vanished from under the stern eye of his parents. They traveled with each other, making money off of the roles Mary got to play, and one day they stumbled upon it, Neverland.

They had decided to to go abroad, but the captain and half the crew of their ship grew ill and and died. Many were left to ensure she, and her passengers made it to safety. With dwindling food supplies, they landed on the first island they saw. Many of the passengers declared it to be a place like they had seen in their dreams as children, James and Mary included. They learned that by believing, people could change the island and affect the dreams of children all over the world. They could change the world. Most of the other passengers however longed to return to society, so James and Mary found a way back to the mainland. For years, they traveled back and forth, but they mostly lived in Neverland.

Then Mary had a child, a boy who looked just like his father, with jet black curls and forget-me-not blue eyes. Many wanted to take the boy, Jamie, back to the mainland to raise him in good society like his father had been, but James was determined to unlock the key to Neverland—to change the world, so she left without him. Occasionally Mary returned to her husband, but discovered that instead of changing the world, he had changed himself. There was a boy on the island by the name of Peter Pan, who was better at believing than James, and he had grown jealous of the boy's abilities. Backed by the passengers who had stayed after that first trip, he started an all out war against the boy. So Mary raised her son by herself.

When Jamie was a teenager and learned of his father, he convinced his mother to go to Neverland and visit him. Hook, as the man was now known for the hook that had replaced his right hand, had been shocked to see his son and doted on the boy. He was aware, however, that his son understood the mechanics of Neverland better than himself and hid his actions from the boy. He made sure Jamie was asleep when he prepared to kill the lost boys, but Jamie was awakened by the commotion and came out on deck to find his father being driven off the ship by Peter. Jamie was not angered by the death of his father, for fond as he was of his father, he agreed with his mother that the man was destined to meet such an end after the way he'd been acting.

When Jamie returned home, Mary recognized that like his father, he'd fallen in love with Neverland and knew she could not keep him on the mainland any longer. Jamie flew back and forth until his mother died and then came back and lived on the old ship.

"Why didn't you become a lost boy?" Izzy asked him.

"Because lost boys fall out of their prams." Jamie said, sticking his hands behind his head, "I'm a little old for that."


	6. Chapter 6

Note: Warning about political incorrectness: I say "redskins" because that is what the "Indians" are called in Barrie's original book. I do not mean to be offensive.

Chapter 6

Izzy watched Jamie, not sure what to think of him. This was perhaps the strangest boy he'd ever met. He opened his mouth and closed it again, unsure how to respond to Jamie's story. "You took over his ship." Izzy said at last, "And you feel no remorse for... losing your father."

James' reclined posture never slackened as he spoke. "I feel remorse for the man who was my father, but that man and Hook were two very different people, and for the most part, my father died long before Hook did."

A tinkling of bells sounded from somewhere in the room and Jamie raised an eyebrow at it. "This is true." He said.

Izzy looked around for the source of the sound and when Jamie spoke he looked at the boy, "There's a fairy in here?"

Jamie chuckled. "Oh yes. Woodchime." At his name, a tiny lilac head popped up from behind a book on the desk. "My fairy." Jamie turned to the fairy "You can come out. I'm sure Izzy believes in fairies otherwise he wouldn't be here." The fairy climbed upon the book and blinked large eyes at Izzy. "It is rather a miracle he's lived this long." He informed Izzy. "Fairies die so often you know." He pulled his hands from behind his head and stroked the fairy's head with a single finger "especially these days."

"What does that mean?"

Jamie pulled his feet off the desk and sat up straight, "No one believes anymore."

The bells chimed again, and Izzy looked at Woodchime.

"Neverland is dying." Jamie translated. "The faries' numbers are greatly diminished."

Woodchime tugged on Jamie's sleeve and told him something.

"No." Jamie pleaded.

"What does he want?" Izzy asked.

Jamie sighed and stood up. "He wants to show you. I don't want to go, but... his right you should see it, and you haven't picked up on the fairy language yet. Besides, Woodchime doesn't like to go places without me. He's rather shy." Woodchime, who had been pacing the length of the book let out one ding of confirmation and flew up to settle himself in Jamie's curls.

Izzy got to his feet. "Alright," he said, "You know the way I guess."

Jamie showed Izzy off the ship and to one of the trees growing nearby. He picked up a rock and with the expert aim of a century of practice, he knocked down a gray-orange fruit and caught it. "Have some breakfast." Jamie tossed Izzy the fruit as Woodchime tinkled at him. Izzy couldn't understand what the fairy said, but he figured Woodchime was upset with him for something because he also pulled a strand of Jamie's hair.

Ignoring the scuffle, Izzy took a bite of the fruit and chewed. It was tough and as a thick, bitter syrup hit his tongue, Izzy wondered if trees in Neverland actually grew vegetables, but that just didn't make sense.

"Not too appetizing is it?" Jamie asked, pulling Izzy into the forest. "Woodchime thought it was a cruel joke giving it to you, but it's a perfect example of what's happening to the island."

Izzy let the rest of the uneaten fruit fall to the ground and focused on not tripping over tree roots. "Why doesn't it taste sweet anymore?"

"That tree used to be fed by the crosswinds, but the island just doesn't spin the way it used to." This time the sound that came from Woodchime sounded less like bells and more like a cat walking on a piano.

"Is that why so many of these trees are dead too?" Izzy asked, stepping over a fallen branch.

"Yeah. The redskins used to cut paths through the forest, which also made it accessible to the rest of us, but now their paths get covered after a few days. Sometimes the trees are struck down by lightning or such, but just as often, they fall on their own." As they walked on, Izzy heard what sounded like church bells in the distance, except that though they grew in volume they never got as loud as church bells. As the trees got green, Woodchime flew off Jamie's head and flew in front of them, pointing out the way, his excited jingling adding to the cacophony.

Jamie ducked under an archway formed by two tree branches and Izzy saw where the sound came from. It was a whole city where the fairies lived, and half a dozen flew down to greet the boys. The air glittered with fairy dust. Izzy looked around in awe. Here were the lush green trees he had been expecting, and strewn all through their branches were little houses with lights flickering through them. It took Izzy a minute to realize that the lights were not lights the fairies used, but the fairies themselves.

"How do they do it?" Izzy asked, looking at one of the houses. He could barely tell it apart from the tree. The branches didn't look cut.

"The trees grow that way," Jamie answered. "These are more alive than the others because they live on fairy magic." He pointed to one tree that looked gray and brittle. The leaves were brown and crinkled and all the houses were dark. "All the fairies that lived there have died, so the tree has died too."


	7. Chapter 7

Chapter 7

Izzy stared for a moment and turned away. He couldn't stand to look at this sight. He had dreamed so long of coming here and in any other circumstances, being here, where the fairies lived would have been like living a dream, but the way things were, it made him dizzy. His dreamland, his island that he believed so much in was not at all the island he'd thought it to be. He stumbled from the clearing and let his feet carry him, wondering if maybe he never should have come and if maybe there was a way to go home and forget.

"Izzy!" Jamie called after him, echoed by Woodchime.

Where was Peter, Izzy wondered. Perhaps he would know what to do. He should know what to do.

"Izzy..." Jamie cut off before he said anything.

"I thought we had an understanding," a familiar voice said, "I thought I made it clear I didn't want to run into you."

"I didn't plan on running into you." Jamie said softly.

"You silly ass."

Jamie made a noise like he was being strangled by his own words. "And now I see you're terrorizing someone new."

"Fine!" Jamie yelled, "take him to your raider camp! And while you're at it, pretend that you're going to be here tomorrow." he added, muttering.

Izzy heard footsteps on fallen leaves and a hand wrapped around his shoulders. "Come on." the voice said and he was steered away through the forest.

When they stopped and Izzy looked up, he didn't only see the green haired girl as he knew he would, but an entire group of green haired people. He knew it was impolite, yet he couldn't help but stare. "wh... who are you?" He was asked at last.

"We're raiders." The girl who led him there said, "this is my party. I'm Rose." She offered her hand. Izzy shook it.

"Uh... who do you raid?" He asked. "And what's with the hair?" A bunch of the raiders laughed at this comment.

"We dye our hair green to hide better in the forest." Rose told him, "not that it helps much these days." She frowned as she spoke. "And we raid whoever is worth raiding, but again, that doesn't seem to be anyone these days, especially not since the last batch of lost boys left."

Izzy knew nothing of lost boys leaving. They had refused to return with his mother. "What happened?" He inquired.

Rose tossed her hands in the air. "They grew up. Peter banished them."

"Grew up? On their own?"

"Yes, what do you think happened? Someone flew in and made them grow up? Or maybe it was a creature from the lagoon... a giant squid or something." She rolled her eyes and looked like she was preparing to call Izzy "you silly ass" as she had to Jamie. Rose took a deep breath and looked Izzy in the eye. "The truth is, since the lost boys left, Peter's been pretty boring." She gestured to the dead trees around her. "He might as well not be here!"

"Well, let's go find him."

Rose stared at Izzy as if he had become blurry all of a sudden. "What?"

"If Peter used to keep Neverland from falling apart, maybe he still can. Maybe he'll know what to do."

The raiders exchanged glances. "I don't know if I want to go right into his camp..." one said, not looking at Rose. "I don't know what he'll do to us if we just go in and introduce ourselves." He looked up at the sky like he thought it was going to rain right on top of them (and from the motion of the clouds, it was a possibility.) Rose looked her band up and down and frowned. "I'll go," she said, "and investigate, and if I don't come back, Lila will take over."


	8. Chapter 8

Note: OMG! Eight chapters and Peter finally shows up! Also, I've noticed that both Izzy _and_ Jamie are acting a little like Peter. If you could, please tell me who you think is more like Peter. This might have bearing on how the story ends. Thanks, enjoy!

Chapter 8

Izzy led the way back to Peter's camp. Even though he had never been there, he was sure he knew where it was. They went through the thickest part of the forest and at last burst into a clearing with a tent pitched in the middle.

"Peter?" Izzy called, but nothing in the clearing stirred.

Rose cast an eye along the tree line as she shifted forward on the balls of her feet. "I don't see him..." she murmered.

Footsteps ran out from behind them as Rose was shoved forward. She went into a roll and came to her feet facing a boy dressed in leaves. Peter stood with his fists on his hips, head thrown back, laughing. He was the first part of Neverland that looked the way Izzy had expected it to.

Peter looked up at Rose. "You mean me?" He asked, cocking his head, "You raiders think you're so good at hiding, but I'm far better at going unseen."

"No one is good at going unseen these days," Rose grumbled. She smirked, "I bet Izzy here is better at going unseen than you are."

Peter turned to look at Izzy, who was now gesturing at Rose. He recognized the boy who stole his mother, and he still disliked him. "I thought I told you not to come here."

Izzy faced Peter's scowl, "I came anyway." He responded.

"Well I guess you are pretty good at hiding if you went without _me_ seeing you, but only one person can be the best hider, so we need to have a contest."

"What?" Izzy shook his head. This was not going as planned.

Peter ignored Izzy and turned to Rose. "You pick the contest."

Rose wrapped a strand of seaweed colored hair around her finger, "Why don't we go to the lagoon and see who can join in the mermaids' games without their noticing?" Peter nodded and turned.

"What does the winner get?" Izzy asked and Peter stopped.

He turned and faced Izzy. "The winner wins." A silent "of course" stood in the air between them.

Rose clapped Izzy on the shoulder. "Bragging rights."

Peter thought this was an acceptable answer and set off again through the woods. As Rose and Izzy tramped behind him, Rose added, "Furthermore, if _you_ win, Peter will be sure to think that something's wrong with this island and be more prone to fix it. So don't fail me."

Izzy swallowed. "Why did I agree to do this again?"

Rose chuckled. "You silly ass."


	9. Chapter 9

Chapter 9

Soon the sound of water reached their ears. They heard splashing and gurgling, which is what mermaids sound like when they giggle. As Rose, Peter, and Izzy broke through the trees, they could see the mermaids at their usual games, trying to keep their bubbles in the air as long as possible before they popped. The three clung to the trees as if worried the mermaids would spot them and swim away.

"On my mark," Rose said, "The two of you will try to join in the game. I'll judge to see who they notice first."

"We aren't going one by one?" Izzy asked.

Rose shook her head. "Once they see us, they'll swim away and then we'll have to come back a different day."

Izzy swallowed.

"Ready?"

Peter and Izzy nodded.

"Go."

Peter dashed away. Izzy waded into the lagoon, unsure what to do. Standing up, the mermaids would notice him as soon as he got close. He needed a way of being flat. Izzy waded in a little deeper until he could lay on his back. Then he lay still and waited for the tide to drift him over to the mermaids.

He wondered what he was supposed to do when he got there. Steal one of their bubbles? Or hit it in the air again? He couldn't help thinking of how good Peter would be at suspending a bubble, considering he could fly.

Izzy was jerked out of the thought as something hit him in the face. He refocused his eyes to find that it was one of the bubbles. He was floating right between two of the mermaids.


End file.
